There seems to be a current trend within the monstrous marketing machine that is the music industry toward promoting a new subgenre of rock music known as Raw Rock.
Record label executives seem rather eager to fabricate a cohesive "scene" by lumping together bands that seem to have a similar sound. They then endlessly promote this "scene" before driving it into the ground due to over-exploitation. This is evidenced by the such "musical movements" as
hair metal,
grunge, and even the huge wave of
boy bands of the late 90s. Now, at the turn of the century, we have raw rock. The darlings of this "scene" are
The Strokes, hailing from
New York, and The
White Stripes, of
Detroit. The sound of this new subgenre, I suppose, could be categorized by an unpolished gritty production style coupled with a retro songwriting aesthetic reminiscent of late 70s punk.